Researchers from China have accidently discovered a super strong, super stretchy hydrogel, which has the potential to be used in tissue engineering.
Originally developed in the 1950s when Otto Wichterle and Drahoslav Lim invented soft contact lenses, supramolecular hydrogels are gel-like polymers that can absorb water. Akin to natural soft tissue, their networks are held together by reversible non-covalent interactions making them attractive materials for biomedical applications.
Hydrogels have good elasticity, but their mechanical weakness lets them down. Now, a new, stronger hydrogel with ‘amazing molecular properties’ has been created by Mingyu Guo and He Huang at Soochow University. The group were making water-dispersible polyurethane adhesives and noticed that strong stretchable gels formed when the samples were left in the air for a couple of days.
Interested? If so, read the full article at Chemistry World here
